European diplomats visit Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem

JERUSALEM

A number of European representatives and diplomats visited on Tuesday Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem to meet with Palestinian families threatened with Israeli eviction orders from their homes.

“The Europeans want to listen from the families who are threatened of expulsion from their homes,” an official with the European Union office in Jerusalem told Anadolu Agency.

He said the European delegation was headed by the EU representative in Palestine, Sven Kuhn von Burgsdorff, and includes the consuls of France, Sweden, Spain, Italy and others.

The visit was not the first as European diplomats and heads of missions have regularly visited the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood to meet with Palestinian families there.

Tensions have run high the Sheikh Jarrah area since last week as Israeli settlers swarmed in after an Israeli court ordered the eviction of Palestinian families in favor of Israeli settlers.

Since 1956, a total of 37 Palestinian families have been living in 27 homes in the neighborhood. However, illegal Jewish settlers have been trying to push them out on the basis of a law approved by the Israeli parliament in 1970.

*Ahmed Asmar contributed to this report from Ankara